"I'm a believer"

@bipod72

I can’t disagree with your points. But, I think the key question is: "Did the customer get their money’s worth?" We have to recognize the intangibles in this equation: "owning the best of the best" or at the very least not having your "audiophile" friends look down on you because you don’t own "real hifi gear" -- the stuff the industry gurus say is pretty spectacular, Having a nice "trophy" sitting in the room is ample justification for some. Its not the "wrong" answer for those with the means to do so.

As I dealer, part of our Mission Statement was "Help people reward themselves for being successful." Some days it was a $12.95 wiring harness for a car stereo system. Other days it was a $1M fully automated home with high end home theater. From my perspective, it was unethical to deny someone the opportunity to audition better gear. Something a step (or two) above the price point they were interested in. No pressure. Just expanding their experiences with what high(er) performance audio can do.

For some, a $100k upgrade represents less than 1/10 of 1% of their net worth. A good call. As long as, in their minds, they're getting their money’s worth.

By the way, I own some old cars and a couple of older homes. I do most of the maintenance myself. I get the tool thing.

inna,

anyone that spends $20,000 for a piece of wire is either stupid or has more money than brains, ask yourself this question what can they do to the piece of wire to make it worth $20,000 or $40,000 or $80,000, absolutely nothing and most of these companies that are charging that are using OFC wire which is the cheapest wire for audio that you can buy, anyone that knows anything knows that OCC single crystal is far superior to anything OFC at any ripoff price and that was proven over 50 years ago already so anyone that uses OFC is behind the times and as for speakers there's only a very few companies that use it internally for their speaker wire because it's about 4 to 5 times the cost of cheap OFC junk.

"...there is no other item in high end audio that fall under the "Rule of Diminishing Returns" like loudspeakers."

I disagree strongly with that statement, but hey, you do you.

"...anyone that spends $20,000 for a piece of wire is either stupid or has more money than brains,..."

Ahh yes...another thinly veiled insult hurled from the cheap seats.

How about if someone is running $500k worth of amplification? (D’Agostino Relentless monoblocks, for instance...) Are they stupid then? More money than brains?

Or a "money no object" pursuit of the absolute pinnacle in audiophile sound quality?

@kennymacc

In all my personal experience in this great hobby of ours, IMHO, there is no other item in high end audio that fall under the "Rule of Diminishing Returns" like loudspeakers.

I have to disagree.

I don’t think that diminishing returns applies anywhere in audio.

For an example; my rich cousin was recently deciding between Pass Labs, or CH Precision at a substantial difference in price (to drive his Von Schweikert Ultra 9 speakers). What did he get for the 5 figures he had to lay out for the difference? A small, but noticeable improvement in soundstage size and depth, a bit better layering. Maybe a bit better attack/decay.

He spent more in just the difference between the amps, than most people spend on their entire systems. Ask him if he passed some point of diminishing returns, and he will tell you, emphatically no.

Remember, there are 100’s of millions of people out there, who listen to all their music as MP3’s, on their smart phones, on $20 earbuds, that think that even people who have spent a modest few grand on an audio system, have passed the point of diminishing returns.

Seems to me, that the point of diminishing returns for a lot of people, mysteriously starts at the point that their ’sour grapes’ kicks in.